Possibilities of life on Gas Giant Moons ( Officially Thomas1134 Endorsed!)

This message was edited 6 times. Last update was at 09/22/2009 02:06:19

This is pretty self explanatory. If you can come up with some good ideas of planets that could sustain life, then PM me.
This thread is for the purpose of discussion. If you do not take it seriously, I will report you.

Name: Titan
Planet: Saturn
Possibility of life: Pretty decent There are pools of liquid methane, which can be a better solvent for life than water, as it does not freeze.
Atmosphere: A surface pressure 1.5 times that of earth. Consists of nitrogen and traces of methane/ethane
Visual data:

Name: Europa
Planet: Jupiter
Possibility of Life: Doubted, but still there. Why? Most of the moon is covered in a frozen ocean. However, if it has any geothermic activity goin' on down where the ice is melted, then bacteria could survive on chemosynthesis.
Atmosphere: Tenuous, consists of oxygen
Visual Data:

Name: Enceladus
Planet: Saturn
Possibility of life: Possible. Water Ice has been identified on the surface, and at the south pole, there is a water-rich geyser, indicative of internal heat. However, it has an albedo of about 100%, so no light really stays on the planet.
Atmosphere: Very low pressure. Composed of 91% Water vapour, 4% Nitrogen, 3.2% Carbon dioxide, 1.7% Methane
Visual Data:

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 04/19/2009 15:33:14

It's very likely that there is geothermic activity going on at the bottom of the oceans of Europa. This is due the fact that Jupiter exerts a gravitational pull on the moon, causing friction in the core that needs to be released.

And then, there would be chemicals released from the core that basic forms of life could metabolize, verdad?

It's very likely that there could be some kinds of bacteria that are specialized for using the chemicals released, similar to the Black Smokers at the bottoms of oceans here on Earth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_smokers

Both moons have distinct possibilities-but at the moment we jst don't know. We can't break throught the ice of Europa (it is at least a mile thick) and we have only ever landed one probe on Titan. We just don't know yet.

actually I am not sure if there would be life there, but we could probably plant some bacteria there if we tried and maybe start new life?

Well... I think the possibilities are endless. But any aliens on europa put on earth will be in the equivalent of a blast furnace.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 04/19/2009 16:35:50

And the point of that comment exactly?....
Doesn't really have much to do with the possibility of life on Titan and Europa.
But your analogy is essentialy correct.

What about Io?

Too hot, air is acidic, atmosphere mostly sulphur dioxide, no water-only lava, higher surface pressure. Io is considered sterile in terms of life.

Sure, it could have life, just not the kind we have on earth.

In all honesty, the only life they could even have a chance of surviving on Titan and Europa are microbes.

That's possible for everything, Da_Strong_Will

I personnally think that neither of them have life. The fact that they are so cold is the real killer. Not even bacteria can survive in tempretures below -100 degrees celcius.

Thomas1134 wrote:I personnally think that neither of them have life. The fact that they are so cold is the real killer. Not even bacteria can survive in tempretures below -100 degrees celcius.

the bacteria that we know... i have to say life could evolve much differently then the bacteria on earth due to extreme circumstances and that earth is only an example of the possibility of life.